B.C. biotech stalwart QLT Inc. (TSX:QLT) saw sales of its flagship treatment for degenerative eye disease slip to start 2010, but recognition of about $5 million of deferred revenue helped boost revenue by 16% compared with last year.
In the first quarter, QLT generated total revenue of $13.7 million.
With Visudyne sales declining, the Vancouver biotech company has largely become a drug developer rather than a manufacturer.
It boosted quarterly R&D spending to $7.3 million from $5.9 million last year as it invested more in developing its punctal plug drug delivery system and a synthetic retinoid that mimics Vitamin A to promote vision.
The company’s loss for the quarter was $5.3 million compared with a $1.7 million loss in Q1 2009. The decline was due to higher operating expenses and lower gross profit from Visudyne.
The company repurchased $1.2 million in QLT shares under a normal course issuer bid in the quarter.
The company’s punctal plug program involves inserting tiny plugs into a patient’s tear duct that release drugs into the eye over a 90-day period.
QLT’s president and CEO Bob Butchofsky told BIV last October (See Business in Vancouver October 13-19, 2009; issue 1042) that studies have shown that 50% of glaucoma patients fail to keep up with their eye-drop regimen after six months of treatment.
"People are needlessly losing their vision because they don’t like taking their eye drops,” said Butchofsky, noting that elderly patients in particular find it difficult to administer drops.
By Curt Cherewayko